Russia and Eurasia: October 2000

First Step: AA and Alcoholism in Russia

By: Patricia Critchlow

Description: "From the earliest introduction of AA groups into Russia in the late 1980s, the newly found self-worth and self-knowledge gained by recovering alcoholics from their participation in AA's 12-step program have been founded on a freedom of expression that had been suppressed during the Soviet era. AA may be viewed by those it touches as a mini-course in the values of a free, open society."